A Missionary Serving in the
Oklahoma City Mission
and the
Argentina Resistencia Mission

Monday, August 25, 2014

The Gospel Puts Your Life in Order

Family! :) Como estan uds!

Espero que todo esta bien! And mom! You´re right, this week is gonna be a crazy one. We´ve been hearing from the Assistants that these transfers are gonna be CRAZY! We´re expecting a few whitewashes in all of the mission... so who knows! I might be starting clean with a new companion in a few hours!

As for that lady - that's super sad. I wrote a letter to myself today in my journal.. so in 10 years I can remember how I felt and I had a thought this week of how the Gospel, if nothing else - puts your life in order. So for anyone that is reading this - live the gospel and its principles, and you´re life will change. :)

Mason is home?! Wow! He´s the last of that group, right? So the next on the list is.. me? NO! :( Who is the next elder to come home?

As for the less actives - occasionally. I have met a majority of them here in my area, and to be honest about half of them aren´t planning on coming back to church. So, when they start to rag on the church (and occasionally at us) I just say something like, well, it seems to me that right now you´re not planning on coming back, so would it be okay if we offer a prayer for you and your family? It usually works, and helps them at least feel the spirit. Plus, they don't waste a ton of our time :)

How sweet is that car! Good work. :)

But.. I do have some good stories this week! So prepare yourselves!

So, we went to Resistencia for a conference on Tuesday. So we went up and had the conference, which Elder Valdez and I earned the award of "The Defensive Lineman Companionship". We got flags.. the bad part is.. we lost our necks. ;)

We had a super good conference. Pres Franco gave an awesome teaching on how its not just baptism, or not just faith that is going to save us... but faith, repentance, baptism, the receiving of the holy ghost, receiving the priesthood, going to the temple, and also being sealed... AND THEN enjoying to the end. its a lot more than just 1 covenant, its many! And covenants are great! :) He also shared with us, that if we want to be saved, all we have to do is go to church every week. just constantly serving, loving, and partaking of the sacrament will do enough for us.

Right after the conference, I went to Bella Vista to do a baptismal interview with a boy named Diego. His little brother was baptized a few weeks ago (Franco) and I met Diego. He was super sweet. We had the interview in the dark on the beach of a lake. One of the coolest atmosphere to have an interview. He passed the interview and was baptized this week. He was a little down that I could not have been there for his baptism, but he´ll be a great member. :)

While in Bella Vista, we also had this lesson with a lady that lives right in front of the church. Literally, across the street. It was a super solid lesson! She understood everything great, especially WHY the restoration was necessary (usually is the part people don't understand) and the importance of a prophet! We invited her to be baptized and she accepted and she went to church this week! essssaaaaa!!!

We met these 2 boys looking for work - Juan and Aldo. They asked us to pray that they could find work, so we taught them the restoration and prayed they could find work, at the end of the lesson, Juan also prayed that he could find work. The next day (Thursday) Elder Burnett (DL in Bella Vista) told me that they passed by their house, and they both found jobs to help them get some money together to go to Mar del Plata. #milagroswag

We also had a super good moment. So here, people don´t say "Thank G..", but they say "Gracias a Dios" (Thanks to God), but sometimes it really makes sense, and most of the time, they are breaking the 3rd commandment... well, we met someone who said "I´m an athiest, gracias a Dios".

I don't know if its as funny to you as it was to us, maybe because they said "Gracias a Dios" for everything. Anyways....

Argentine's always yell at their dogs. They yell "Fuera" (out) and everyone has their "fuera voice" so they will be talking in their nice voice and then their dog misbehaves and "FUERA" with the voice of the devil himself. Its so funny! So, E. Valdez and I make fun of the people a little and when we see a dog we say "FUERA" in the most disgusting voice we can conjure up. So, we were at a house sitting outside in the dark, and E Valdez had his bag under the chair. The faimly we were talking to thought itw as a dog and yelled "FUERA" at the bag. Don´t worry, we made fun of them. :)